Question

How cultural factors may affect health and healthcare

Answer 1

Before talking regarding culture and health, you need to understand what is culture; culture is a pattern of ideas, customs and behavior shared by a particular people or society. It is a learned behavior and passed on through generations.

Culture has a vast effect on health as well as health care. Because, people have different views or perceptions of health , illness, And death, according to their culture. Some people may have some believes about the cause of a disease and death. According to that their approaches to health promotion are also varying.

In the health care system, both health care workers and the patients are influenced by their respective cultures.

In order to avoid cultural bias and avoid further complications, health care workers should be aware about their culture, and respect it so that further treatment process will be easier for both.

So a culturally competent health care system is one that acknowledges the importance of culture, incorporates the assessment of cross cultural relations, expands cultural knowledge. There for cultural competency is essential in health care system.